The study of hydrodynamic instability and turbulence which is one of the earliest areas of interest for fundamental physics remains relevant to the present day. A complex of facilities was created to study gravitation turbulent mixing including the EKAP and the SOM gas guns, and the MUT and the OSA shock tubes. The EKAP and the SOM gas guns are designed to study systems of liquid materials of different density.
The EKAP and the SOM facilities are equipped with modern optical and X-ray diagnostic systems to study the internal structure of turbulent mixing zone of various materials.
The MUT and the OSA shock tubes are used to study the evolution of mixing zones growing under the effect of Richtmyer-Meshkov and Reyleigh-Taylor instabilities in systems of gases of different density. Laser, laser-interferometry and optical diagnostic tools which make it possible to record mixing zones as such and their internal structures are applied for diagnostics of the processes occurring in gas media.